Breathe
By Mónica Hernández
If you haven't heard of Giséle Pelicot by now, you've been living under a rock. Or in a cave. Or in your life, your problems, your complications. Perhaps the weight of human misery that surrounds us is so heavy that we prefer to look away, always look away. Maybe it is not out of indifference, but just out of ignorance. So let me introduce you to Giséle.
Giséle is a 72-year-old woman who lives in Mazan, a town in the south of France, reasonably close to Avignon, a place best known for being touristy, the papal seat during the 14th century. She has been married to Dominique for 50 (yes, fifty) years. She is the mother of three grown children, Caroline, David and Florian and their lives seemed to run in the normality of any family with children who are themselves parents. Then came the tsunami.
Some women reported a man filming their legs and crotch under their skirts in a supermarket. Others followed suit. There was no pattern of age, race, height or complexion. The common denominator was female. And so it went until the police arrested Dominique, the perpetrator. This was only the beginning. Searching his computer, after a search warrant, they found videos of his wife having sex with many men. Many. So far the police have identified 50, but they estimate that many more are missing.
For a little more than ten years, Dominique drugged his wife, wife, partner, friend and lover and offered her on the internet, so that men would feast on her, upon payment. She was protected, somewhat twisted, because she never knew what was going on. She was always drugged. In the videos she can be heard snoring lightly. In the photos she only looks asleep. And it was her husband who exploited her. The person you married, the one you had children with, the one you cook for and do the laundry for. The one you live with and go on vacation with. With whom you have consensual intimate relations. With whom you organize family parties, Christmas, grandchildren's birthdays.
Photos of the daughter have also been found on the computer, under a folder labeled "naked pictures of my daughter". It remains to be seen whether the father will also be prosecuted for this, because Giséle has chosen to come out of the anonymity to which she was entitled and to show her face, seeking perhaps to protect her daughter, although no one can protect her anymore at this point. She has attended each and every one of the hearings in which the men who paraded with her have declared what they did to her while her husband was filming. In addition to being a vulgar businessman, Dominque was a voyeur.
Giséle has preferred to protect her daughter, because she is convinced that Dominique has done the same with Caroline as with her, although only photos are known. Apparently, he also took inappropriate photos of Aurore, Giséle's daughter-in-law, mother of three children with Florian. Céline, David's wife, also appeared on the computer, naked and pregnant with their twins. An exemplary man who has left his family shattered, perhaps irretrievably. Because now one of the grandchildren, 18 years old, is rethinking that time he "played" doctors with his grandfather. The list of revelations of her daughters-in-law, son-in-law and grandchildren is very long and terribly painful to read, as painful as those of the perpetrators with Gisele's body. They have all been robbed not only of their childhood and adolescence, but also of their future because the daughters-in-law have filed for divorce from the family. Maybe I will change my last name so that Pelicot does not appear anywhere. Let nothing bind the people of that family to that monster.
What makes Giséle different from other women abused by their husbands? She has declared, quoting Hannah Arendt, that her case is an example of the banality of evil, because everyone contributed to this monstrosity in their own way. She has awakened from the horror in her own way, with serenity and infinite patience. He appears with his face held high. He drags dignity. They stole his body, but not his mind. He has said: Shame must change sides.
Je suis Giséle, I am Giséle because I believe her. Enough of the victims becoming guilty, the object of shame. It's not the fault of the miniskirt, the beautiful legs, the breasts or the cleavage. It's not the hips. It's not the skin. It's not the smell, nor the softness. I am Giséle because indeed, shame MUST change sides.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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